Football and Friends
by loti-day
Summary: Part 2 of the Merlin Holmes series. Seeking regularity to help recover from his traumatic experience with Moriarty, Merlin begins his time at the prestigious academy of Westminster. He will look for friends and love to help him through a new school, new home, and living with insane relatives he hasn't seen or talked to in years.
1. Chapter 1

Lizlulu, Chrisybee, and I would like to thank everyone who favorited, reviewed, and followed our previous story "Merlin Holmes"! You guys are the best! This story is very much a work in progress and updates might be a little slow, but we will try our very best to update regularly. Enjoy, and please review!

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Merlin adjusted his tie in the mirror. Satisfied with how he looked, Merlin grabbed his school bag and quietly left his bedroom so he didn't wake up Sherlock, not that he couldn't have woken his brother up already tripping over himself trying to put his socks on. John was already sitting at the kitchen table dressed for work at the clinic.

"Is he still asleep?" John asked as Merlin grabbed a scone off the kitchen counter and looked in the refrigerator for milk.

"No, well maybe. Last night I couldn't find my socks and this morning they were laid out with the rest of my clothes."

John smiled at the thought of Sherlock waking up in the middle of the night to make sure Merlin had everything he needed for his first day at a new school. "You've got your inhaler, right?"

Merlin nodded as he, unable to find any milk, poured himself a glass of water. "My asthma's not actually that bad." '_It's only when the criminally insane shove mystery liquids down my throat that it gets to be a real problem.' _His hands shook slightly as he tried to get that face out of his head. John watched Merlin closely but said nothing, Merlin had been having these little panic attacks throughout the winter break but they had gotten better and less frequent. Merlin checked his watch and then headed out the door. "Have a good day John."

"Thanks you too."

"Tell Sherlock to get some milk would you?"

* * *

The bus ride was fast, and too soon Merlin was faced with the campus of Westminster. It was a beautiful school, all towers and old architecture. It rather looked like a castle.

Merlin entered the school, went to the front desk, and asked where the headmaster's office might be found. The lady pointed him in the right direction and Merlin fought his way through the crowds of busy students to the headmaster's office. When Merlin first entered the office he thought he was going crazy, Headmaster Gatiss, according to his name plate, looked exactly like Mycroft. It was creepy. Merlin did his best to shake off his shock as Mr. Gatiss smiled and gestured his to sit down in the chair opposite his desk.

"Welcome to Westminster, Merlin, how are you liking it so far?" Mr. Gatiss asked.

"I haven't seen that much of it yet, sir." Merlin answered.

"Well school's just started hasn't it? Before you start your day I'd like to give you a quick rundown of our rules and regulations here at Westminster and then send you off to Mr. Gaius, our student counselor. How does that sound?" Without even waiting for an answer Mr. Gatiss started in on the rules and regulations, even though a copy of them had been sent to Merlin's home over break and he and already read it. Once the headmaster was finished with reading the school rule book out-loud to Merlin, he walked Merlin to the school counselor's office and told him to have a good day.

Headmaster Gatiss walked Merlin into the counselor's office, bid him a good day and left. Merlin stood awkwardly in the empty room for a few moments then sat down on the chair opposite the large comfy one Merlin supposed belonged to Mr. Gaius. Within seconds of sitting down the office down banged open and Merlin, jumping, nearly knocking off some of the papers piled haphazardly on the counselor's desk.

"Who are you?" Mr. Gaius asked, as if Merlin was an unwelcome intruder.

"I'm Merlin, the new transfer student." Merlin explained.

"Merlin's supposed to be here on Wednesday."

"Today _is_ Wednesday."

"Ah, right then. Well let's look at your manuscripts from Ealdor Academy." Mr. Gaius said puling a few sheets of paper out of the massive pile on his desk until he found the right one. "Well your grades are good, outstanding actually. If I may make a suggestion, transferring schools in the middle of the year can have a negative connotation on your University application so maybe you could join an extra-curricular activity."

"I was thinking about joining the football team." Merlin said.

Mr. Gaius looked surprised, "Well, I was thinking more along the lines of our gardening club or synchronized swimming team." Gaius said.

"I have more muscle on me than one would think, I have all kinds of hidden talents that everyone seems to overlook." Merlin got a little defensive.

Mr. Gaius rolled his eyes and the meeting continued without another dispute over Merlin's schedule.

* * *

Merlin felt good about how big the school is; surely in a school with this many students making friends will be a piece of cake.

Yet again, Merlin was sorely mistaken, because Merlin was just always wrong, wasn't he. It was approaching lunch time and Merlin was just sitting in his class ruminating on his awful first day. It wasn't even half over yet and Merlin had been shoved around in the hallways, pointed in the wrong direction after he was already hopelessly lost (his sense of direction sucked), and had a run-in with a blond haired, blue eyed jerk. Merlin could just tell by his cocky stride, the arrogant smirk that this guy would cause trouble. Merlin tried to be nice at first when he saw that he was teasing a smaller kid, only to be mocked and shoved into the girl's bathroom. At least he knew one guy to steer clear of. The bell ringing startled him out of his musing (**not** sulking) and he scrambled to gather his stuff as he followed the flow of traffic to a huge cafeteria. Having yet to meet anyone he would want to talk to, he took his solitary seat in a corner of the room; at least the food was good.

"Hi," said a sweet looking girl with a small purple flower in her dark brown hair and latte skin as she put her tray down next to him "I'm Gwen, and this is my friend Freya. We thought you might be new here, and we wanted to sit with you. I mean, if that would be ok? I didn't mean that you didn't have friends, you just looked lonely. Not that you're lonely or anything! I just meant that, well of course you would sit alone if it's your first day and all…" as she went on she just got more and more flustered. Her blushing and blathering strangely put Merlin more at ease, so he took mercy on her.

"Yeah, I'd love if you guys joined me." As they sat down Merlin noticed the much shyer, quitter looking girl who sat down across from him. She seemed nice, with pale skin, slightly wavy black hair, and a small smile like an innocent lamb. Merlin grinned at her as he introduced himself, "My name's, Merlin Holmes, it's nice to meet you two."

"So how is you're first day going, are you thinking of joining any clubs?" Gwen asked sounding like she actually wanted an answer, unlike the headmaster.

"Actually I was thinking of joining the football team."

Both Gwen and Freya looked surprised, Gwen recovered the quickest, "Did you play before?"

"No."

"Do you have any equipment?"

"No." Merlin was starting to feel stupid.

"Oh, well my brother, Elyan, plays on the football team now. I could probably give you his old football things, he won't care."

"Are you two in any clubs?"

"Well I'm in the garden club," Merlin made a mental note never to snub the garden club in front of Gwen, "and Freya's on the swim team, she's pretty good too."

"I'm not that good." Freya said, blushing.

"Wait, synchronized swimming?" Merlin asked.

"No, normal swim team, the synchronized swim team is for toffs."

Merlin laughed, glad his day had gotten better.

* * *

Merlin walked to Mr. Leon's office with confidence, or as much as he could muster. He had already had Mr. Leon's history class and knew he was a nice guy but was still nervous about asking to be on the team. When Merlin walked into the room Mr. Leon and the blonde haired git where talked about something at Mr. Leon's desk. Mr. Leon looked up from their conversation, "Merlin, do you have any questions about class today?"

"No, I was wondering, I know that the football team plays year-round, is it too late for me to try out?"

Mr. Leon and Blondie's faces showed as much shock as Freya, Gwen, and Mr. Gaius' did. Then Blondie smirked, "You missed the girl's tryout's better luck next year."

"Arthur, shut-up." Mr. Leon said not looking at the Blondie, who was apparently called Arthur. "Mr. Gaius said that you might be interested in this but he also mentioned that you suffered from asthma."

Merlin's face hardened and became determined. "My asthma isn't that bad, not unless I run too much." _Unless-_**stop it, **Merlin was never afraid of his asthma before Moriarty, but he realized that he needed a way to over-come his fear and there was no other way for Merlin to do things than to face it head on.

"Good thing there's no running in football." Arthur said.

"One more word and I will send you out into the hall like a preschooler, Arthur." Mr. Leon said sternly. "I have no problem with you being on the team, I just want you to know what you're in for. You'd probably be an alternate anyway."

"Alternate?" Merlin asked.

"We have too many players for one team and not enough for two so we have a few alternate players. You would just be bench-warming though you can double up as a manager."

"We are in need of a water boy." Arthur suggested mock helpfully, Mr. Leon ignored him.

"I'm still interested in being on the team, whatever my place will be."

"I'll schedule a tryout right after school for you tomorrow than if you want."

"That sounds great thanks."

Merlin dragged himself through the school hallways everything hurt, muscles he didn't even know he had hurt. It had been three days since his first day at Westminster and one since his football tryout. Since then Merlin had been to one grueling football practice. The only good news was that he had yet to have an asthma attack on the football field and somebody, probably Sherlock, had snuck heating pads onto his desk that helped him relax.

"Hey, Merlin!" Someone shouted. Merlin turned around to see Gwaine running down the hallway towards him. Gwaine slapped Merlin on the back (why anyone would think this was a proper way to say hello was beyond Merlin) and Merlin bit back a groan. "Great job at practice yesterday, that dive was awesome." Merlin didn't think that Gwaine needed to know that he had fallen over while, flailing, trying to get a bug out of his face. "Anyways, Coach wants to see you in his office."

"Thanks Gwaine." Merlin said, looking mournfully down the hallway to Mr. Leon's office. He had just made his painful trek all the way here and now he would have to go back. Nobody had mentioned this when he had first wanted to try out.

When Merlin appeared in Mr. Leon's office he saw that once again he and Arthur where already there. Merlin stood silently in the corner waiting until they finished their conversation. Arthur had continued making snide remarks all through his tryout and first practice, Merlin wasn't about to start giving him any real ammunition to hate him.

"Merlin, just the man I was looking for." Mr. Leon said looking up from his conversation with Arthur.

"Gwaine said you were looking for me."

"Merlin as a teacher I have access to students grades and I noticed that you have very good ones. Arthur is in danger of falling beneath the standard set for student athletes here at Westminster. So what do you say Merlin can you help the team out, tutor Arthur in English and History."

Merlin froze. This is the last thing he was expecting. Between the pleading look on coach's face that clearly said he was at the end of his rope and the enraged look on Arthur's Merlin was at a loss as to what to say. Then the words came out of his mouth without his permission, "Sure coach, anything for the team."

Later that day, laying on his bed, in 221B Baker Street Merlin kicked himself, clearly he had no idea what he was thinking.


	2. Chapter 2

I'm sooooo sorry this took so long to post! There were editing problems, then scheduling problems and then tech. problems, but to make it up to you, I'm posting 2 chapters at once yaaaaaay! enjoy :)

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Merlin left Mr. Leon's office after another grueling tutoring session with Arthur. Mr. Leon allowed Merlin and Arthur to use his office for their tutoring sessions because trying to do them in study halls had been too distracting. Merlin was glad they had their sessions in a teacher's office; he was pretty sure Arthur would have beaten him up several times if there wasn't a teacher nearby. It's not like Merlin _tried_ to get smart with Arthur, but sometimes things just slipped out before he could stop them.

Although Arthur didn't need to beat up Merlin himself, no he had a whole football team to do that. Merlin noticed that since he started tutoring Arthur the football practices have gotten harder and much more painful, at least for Merlin. Arthur made Merlin play the position of goalkeeper once, (which didn't even make sense since Percival was a great goalkeeper) and Merlin still had bruises.

Tutoring sessions and football practices aside, Merlin thought things were going fairly well. He was getting to be good friends with Gwen and Freya, although he was having trouble keeping them from coming to the flat. It's not that he was ashamed of Sherlock, but really, who dissects cow toughs on the kitchen table? His grades were also good. According to Mr. Gaius- if Merlin kept his grades this good he could go to nearly any university he wanted to, within reason of course, and definitely be granted a scholarship or two. Merlin didn't mention that with a brother like Mycroft he could bully Cambridge into accepting him and pay his way through any university.

Merlin entered Mrs. Hunith's classroom for biology class and took his seat. This had to be one of his favorite classes, not just because he liked biology and Mrs. Hunith was a great teacher but his seat was also next to Freya's. He slid into his seat and turned towards her. He thought he really had a connection with Freya, although she seemed shy to begin with she had really opened up. Merlin found that they shared a similar sense of humor and that Freya read nearly as much as he did and probably loved to talk about what she had read even more than he did. He had just opened his mouth to say something to her when Arthur he sat diagonally behind him on his other side leaned over and stage whispered something so Merlin and everyone in the vicinity could hear him.

"Why are you even trying Merlin, she's way out of your league… On the other hand maybe not. You're kind of both losers." Arthur clearly expected some sort of reaction from the nearby football teammates but didn't get one; he obviously forgot that Lance and Ellian where the only football players in the class besides him and Merlin. Ellian was Gwen's brother and was probably too afraid of his sister to laugh at Freya, and Lance was too nice to laugh at anyone.

But Merlin wasn't paying attention to anyone's reaction but Freya's. She had turned bright red when Arthur had said that she was out of Merlin's league but then Arthur said they were losers and now she wouldn't look at Merlin and her eyes were getting shiny. Before Merlin could decide whether to comfort her or to punch Arthur in the face Mrs. Hunith entered the room and the bell rang for class to start. He really didn't care about Arthur teasing him, Arthur did it all the time and Merlin was good with comebacks, but this was too far.

Freya didn't talk to Merlin for the rest of the day. Gwen, who Merlin was pretty sure found out from Ellian, assured him that it was because she was embarrassed and not because she was mad at Merlin, why would she be anyway? Gwen raised her eyebrows as Merlin asked more questions about Freya and Merlin knew he was having a hard time convincing her that he was just checking on a friend. He was having trouble convincing himself.

By the end of the day Merlin was glaring at daggers at Arthur, imaging all the creative ways that he could maim him at football practice without anyone noticing. Although the rest of team wasn't happy with what Arthur said to Freya either. Everyone liked Gwen- she was funny, at least three of the players had crushes on her, and she was around the team a lot because of her brother, so they were nice to Freya by association. But Merlin doubted they would help him hurt Arthur, at least not too badly. Besides Mr. Leon was running practice today, at least it wouldn't be a how-painful-can-I-make-this-for-Merlin practice.

Merlin changed into his football uniform and debated for a few minutes deciding if he should text Freya or not. He decided not to, she'll probably want to come back tomorrow and pretend that nothing happened. Merlin hurried onto the field with the rest of the team; the last thing he needed was for coach to make him do extra push-ups for being late.


	3. Chapter 3

OK, here we go: We do not own any of the characters here, we are not making any money. I just wanted to put that out there again. Chapter 4 is in the works! Remember to review!

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Practice was just a half an hour from being over and Arthur hadn't insulted Merlin yet. Arthur was always insulting Merlin whether they were at practice, a tutoring session, nearly anytime they saw each other during the day.

The last thing coach wanted them to do was to run through some drills. When it was Merlin's turn he did it nearly perfectly and kicked the ball right passed Percival's outstretched arms and into the goal. When Merlin turned around everyone looked nearly as surprised as he felt. Whenever they had run that drill before Merlin had he fell flat on his face. He didn't even pay attention to what happening with the drill has but he looked up when he heard his name.

"I've told you a million times Greenburg, STOP MESSING AROUND! If you don't start taking this more seriously I'll put you on the bench for a game or two and see how you feel about it then. I'll have Merlin play for you! Not only does he actually try, he might actually be better than you! Take a lap." When coach had finished yelling at Eric Greenburg the drill continued. Merlin knew that coach had just said he was better than him to make a point, but knowing Eric, he might not.

_Arthur's Point Of View: _

Practice was over and the whole football team crowded into the locker room. Arthur couldn't wait to get home and forget about today. His teammates were all being strangely cold towards him ever since he made fun of that Freya girl. The weird thing was he kind of felt bad about it too, he never felt bad about making fun of people. Except for that one time when they were all seven and he had switched lunches with Anthony Carper, in his defense Anthony's mom made the best lunches with white bread instead of wheat, but Arthur hadn't known that Anthony was allergic to peanuts and went into anaphylactic shock when he took one bite of Arthur's peanut butter and jelly sandwich and had to be taken to the emergency room. But that was the only time and he had almost killed the kid.

He felt bad the minute he saw her crying, which was right after he said it, he had been trying to convince himself that she wasn't really crying and he had been doing a pretty good job of it too. But then Gwen cornered him. Gwen talked to him for about five minutes in that parental voice that makes you wish they were actually yelling. Gwen had the power to make anyone feel ashamed of themselves. Of course he knew Freya was nice, and he didn't mean to make her cry. An idiot could see that she was shy and had more trouble than most making friends, she did only have two, and he has to go and call her a loser. Hopefully tomorrow everything would be back to normal or Gwen might actually make him apologize.

Arthur was finished taking his cleats off when he heard a commotion. He rolled his eyes, it was probably nothing but as team captain he had to check it out. Most of his teammates had left, the only ones still here where Eric, Merlin, and Gwaine who Arthur knew was taking a shower. When Arthur found whoever was making the racket he was too late.

To call it a fight would be a gross overstatement. A fight usually includes two people and they both fight and that's definitely not what was happening here. It was all over in one punch to Merlin's face. Eric didn't look like he was going to do anything else but Arthur decided something had to be done anyway.

"Eric! What do you think you're doing?" Arthur yelled.

Eric looked surprised to see Arthur, obviously thinking he had left already. "He thinks he can just take my spot on the team!"

"Eric, you're an idiot. You've seen Merlin play! Coach was just trying to make a point. He wouldn't actually replace you." Arthur said.

"But coach said-" Eric began but Arthur cut him off.

"Eric just get your things and leave before you make more of an idiot of yourself." Arthur said sounding exasperated. Eric shot Arthur a glare, grabbed his football bag and stormed out of the locker room. Then Arthur crouched down to Merlin's level. "Are you alright?" Arthur asked.

"I'll be fine." Merlin said in a way that made Arthur sure that he hadn't forgotten the incident in bio either. Merlin was feeling around for his glasses with one hand and trying to stop his nose from bleeding with the other.

Arthur picked up Merlin's glasses, or the two halves of them and handed them to Merlin. "Look, I'm really sorry about today."

"It's not me who you need to apologize to." Merlin said. He looked mournfully down at his glasses then put them in his bag. He then took off his t-shirt and put on his sweatshirt. Arthur thought this was really strange until Merlin started using his shirt to stop his nose from bleeding.

"I didn't mean to make her cry."

"I don't care." Merlin grabbed his own bag and left the locker room.

Just as the door swung shut Gwaine came out of the shower. "What was that about?" He asked as Arthur was putting on his normal sneakers and tying the laces.

"Eric took coaches comment about benching him a little too seriously today. He punched Merlin in the face, broke his glasses and gave him a blo…"

"Wait Eric broke his glasses?"

"Yeah, right in half."

"And Merlin just left."

"Yeah, Gwaine why…"

"Merlin's practically legally blind without his glasses."

"So?" Arthur asked wondering why Gwaine was making such a big deal about this.

"Merlin takes the bus home, the public bus actually. He has to walk across roads and stuff to get home."

"Oh."

Gwaine rolled his eyes. "One of us needs to make sure he has a ride home or something."

Arthur looked at Gwaine expectantly, who just gestured to his bare feet and the towel around his waist and said, "I would, but I don't think Merlin's into that" and waggled his eyebrows with a smirk. Arthur rolled his eyes, grabbed his bag and ran out of the locker room to find his teammate.

He found Merlin in the front lobby of the school holding his phone, whose screen was blinking the empty battery symbol which meant it was dead.

"Do you have a ride?" Arthur asks.

Merlin turns toward Arthur who is standing further away than he was in the locker room. He can see now that Merlin is squinting, trying to see Arthur. "Maybe, my brother might be at home. I'm not sure yet." Obviously lying, he couldn't call his brother on a dead phone.

"I could walk you home." Arthur offered, trying to make it sound as awkward as possible.

"Why would you do that?"

Arthur shrugged, "Where do you live?" He asked not answering Merlin's question.

"Baker Street, why?"

"I pass that street every day to get to school. It's barely out of my way." Arthur said, completely lying.

"As if, I don't know where you live but I doubt it's anywhere near me." Merlin had always imagined the Pendragons living in a huge mansion somewhere, and none of the houses near Baker Street even came close.

"I just don't want you to get hit by a bus or something."

"Gwen yelled at you about what you said in bio didn't she?" Merlin.

"She said I had to apologize, but I'm not good at that so I'm trying to make it up to you."

Merlin rolled his eyes, "Fine, we'll have to take the tube though, we've probably missed the bus." Merlin and Arthur set off across the school parking lot and Merlin told Arthur which trains they would have to take and which stops they would have to get off at. "Don't you have a chauffeur or something that could pick us up?"

"Yeah but he's not here yet. I'll text him your address and then call him when we get there so he knows when to pick me up."

Merlin tried not to laugh. Arthur obviously didn't know that Merlin was joking about the chauffeur.

Merlin and Arthur's journey went smoothly. Merlin couldn't tell what any of the tube trains where or read where any of the stops where but that's why he had Arthur. Merlin even suggested that Arthur see if there was an opening anywhere for a seeing-eye dog, he'd be great for the job. His comment earned him an elbow in the stomach but Merlin could tell that Arthur didn't really mean it to hurt.

"So you live with your brother." Arthur tried to make conversation as they got off their next tube and started walking to Baker Street.

"Yeah him and his roommate, John."

"Oh so your brother's… Not that there's anything wrong with that…"

Merlin was momentarily confused as to why Arthur was so flustered all of a sudden, then comprehension dawned on him and he started laughing. Arthur shot him a worried look. "No, they're just roommates. John and Sherlock are just friends. Although Sherlock is a little strange."

"He can't be any weirder than my sister."

"You have a sister?"

"Well she's my half-sister actually. Morgana, she's in our year. You know the gothic creepy one that hangs out with Morgause and Cenred." They had reached 221B Baker Street now and Merlin waited outside while Arthur pulled out his cell phone to call his chauffeur, when he saw his phone blinking the empty battery symbol at him. Arthur sighed and Merlin cursed mentally knowing what was going to be asked next. "Could use your home phone, since both of ours are dead?"

"Sure." Merlin said trying to sound calm when on the inside he was going nuts. He was tempted to just say no and lock Arthur out. Even though he had come to the conclusion that Arthur was an alright guy he still didn't want him to see Sherlock newest project cut apart on the kitchen table. Arthur was the one guy Merlin was sure would use this at school to make Merlin's life as terrible as possible. But Merlin gritted his teeth and faced it like a man. He unlocked the door and let Arthur into his house.

Thankfully Mrs. Hudson was out and Merlin and Arthur were able to go upstairs without anyone asking how their day went a million times. Merlin put his hood up on his hoodie to hide his bruised face, even though he knew Sherlock was going to notice something off with him and call him out on it.

"Hello Merlin." John said when Merlin entered the apartment.

"You're home later than normal." Sherlock said, not giving Merlin time to answer. Sherlock was at the kitchen table, just as Merlin feared and knew he would be, looking at something under his microscope

"I got held up a bit at school, I had to take the tube instead of the bus. Oh and this is Arthur," Merlin explained when John looked questioningly at the blonde teenager. "He's the football team captain. My glasses broke at school today, and Arthur helped me get home today since I can't read anything." Merlin pulled the two halves of his glasses.

"How'd they break?" John asked taking the glasses from Merlin and looking them over.

"He got punched John, that much should be obvious." Sherlock explained sounding bored.

"How did you know that?" Arthur asked while Merlin and John shared a look that said they didn't want to know.

"Well, Arnold."

"Arthur."

Sherlock continued like Arthur hadn't interrupted him, "Merlin's hood is up, and Merlin's hood is never up so he must be hiding something. Every other day Merlin's t-shirt is showing somewhere from underneath his sweatshirt and today it isn't. Sure he could still be wearing one; it would be odd if he wasn't, except I can see it peeking out of his sweatshirt pocket. It's white and it's covered in blood. He must have had a bloody nose after practice today and used his t-shirt stop the blood from getting everywhere. Even though Merlin's hood is up I can still see the evidence of him having a bloody nose and a black eye forming. Merlin's glasses broke, but in half, something that hardly ever happens and is hard to accomplish on one's own. So Merlin's trying, and failing, to hide something on his face, he had a bloody nose, a black eye, and his glasses are broken. It quite obvious he got punched in the face. Probably after practice, so he upset someone at practice."

The whole room was silent. Sherlock went back to his microscope, John tried to process what Sherlock had just said, and Arthur was staring at Sherlock in shock. Then Arthur's shock turned to admiration and he broke the silence.

"That was so cool." Arthur exclaimed.

"Who punched you, Merlin?" John asked, he looked serious and Sherlock pulled out his phone. Merlin was ready to bet that Sherlock was pulling up a stalker website ready to enter the name as soon as Merlin said it.

"It was nothing, just a misunderstanding." Merlin answered.

"Did you say something to him?" John guessed.

"I'll explain everything later," Merlin said with every intention to never bring up the subject again, "both Arthur and my phones are dead and Arthur has to call his ride so they can pick him up." Merlin picked up the cordless phone from its cradle and handed it to Arthur.

After Arthur had been picked up by his chauffeur and Merlin had shut himself in his and Sherlock's room to avoid everyone. He put his hood down and looked into the mirror to look at the damage done to his face. He winced; Sherlock was right there was a bruise forming and looked like it hurt just as much as it did. Later, when Merlin was done looking at his bruised face and was working on homework at his desk, still in his and Sherlock's room, the door opened and Sherlock came in. Sherlock sat of his bed expectantly.

"I'm not going to tell you who punched me." Merlin said, not looking away from his homework. He was using his back-up glasses, which were the glasses he used before he got his new ones. His head hurt right behind his eyes because the prescriptions were too different.

"You know I'll find out eventually."

"Yes, you and Mycroft will find out and together you'll exploit every skeleton in their family's closet and get his family deported. I may not like them but I don't want you to destroy their lives. Besides Arthur will be having them run about sixty laps tomorrow anyway. He'll get what's coming to him."

Sherlock's face lit up. "So Arthur knows who it is and he's on the football team."

Merlin mentally kicked himself, knowing he had probably given Sherlock enough information to figure it all out. "Sherlock! My face hurts, my head hurts, I have a huge amount of homework to do and you're not helping matters."

Sherlock rolled his eyes. "I just wanted to give you this." Sherlock dropped an ice pack wrapped in a paper towel on Merlin's desk. "I also wanted to talk about when you wanted to schedule an eye appointment to get new glasses."

"Oh thanks," Merlin said, feeling bad for getting mad at Sherlock. Then remembering that Sherlock woke him up this morning with his violin at three in the morning and not being mad anymore. "I was actually thinking about getting contacts, but I know they're expensive."

"Not when Mycoft's paying." Sherlock said and they both laughed.

Merlin's phone, which was connected to its charger lit up and buzzed to say he got a text message. Merlin picked it up, confused when he saw Arthur's name on the ID. Arthur had given all the football players his mobile number so if they needed they could text him about scheduling but Merlin had never texted Arthur and Arthur had never texted Merlin.

_**You're brother's AWESOME, was that brains he was dissecting?**_

Merlin laughed and texted Arthur back, with one hand because the other was holding the ice pack up to his eyes, saying:

_No just intestines I think, what does your sister dissect on your kitchen table?_

_**The hopes and dreams of small children.**_

Merlin burst out laughing; maybe Arthur wasn't nearly as bad as Merlin thought.


	4. Chapter 4

Can you guys say... NEW CHAPTER?! 'Cuz here it is, and its the longest one yet! enjoy, my lovelies. **disclaimer: neither myself, nor my co-writer or co-editor own any of the characters here.** Read and review and we love you!

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The next morning Merlin woke up to find a new pair of contacts and their directions sitting on his bed side table. Sherlock was already up and Merlin could hear the sounds of one of Sherlock's favorite pieces being played on the violin in the living room. It took Merlin an extra five minutes to get dressed, figuring out how to put his new contacts in without aggravating his bruised eye. Merlin thought he looked odd, not wearing glasses, but he liked it, overlooking the black eye of course. So far so good.

Merlin went into the kitchen to find Sherlock, playing the violin while looking out the window and John reading the newspaper and eating his cereal. A perfectly normal morning.

"How are your contacts working?" John asked looking up from his newspaper.

"Their great so far, thanks. I've got to go though or I'll be late, sorry." Merlin said as he dashed from the room. Getting to the stop just in time Merlin climbed into the bus elated with the feeling that today was going to be a great day.

The moment Merlin walked into his school he knew something was different. Everyone was looking at him and he could have sworn he saw a group of girls pointing and giggling. At first Merlin had chalked it up to a combination of not having glasses and a black eye but nobody asked him any questions about his appearance and Merlin failed to see the hilarity in that anyway.

"You know it's funny," Someone said from behind him. Merlin turned around to see it was Morgana, surrounded by her normal henchmen, "you'd think I'd know, living with the guy and all, but people surprise you all the time, don't they Merlin." All of Morgana's friend's laughed and Merlin, too confused to say anything, was quiet.

Merlin was getting his books from his locker when Gwen sidled up to him, "So when were you going to tell us?"

"Tell you what?"

"That your..." Gwen never got to finish.

"Hey Merlin, can I talk to you?" Percival asked. Merlin could see that Percival was nervous which was strange because Percival, although quiet, was very brave.

"Sure, uh Gwen could you hold on for a sec. What is it Percival?"

"So... um on behalf of the team, I just wanted to say that we... um we are surprised... um. But that we still accept you and we still all want to be friends with you." Percival looked relieved, like he had gotten a huge load off his shoulders.

"Wait, what?" Merlin said, even more confused.

"What I'm trying to say it that we don't care."

"About what."

"Thatyourgay." said Percival quickly.

"What."

"The team doesn't care that your gay." Percival said slowly.

"But I'm not."

"You're not gay?" Percival looked confused.

"Nope."

"You're sure."

"I'm pretty sure."

"Oh." Percival looked more relived then ever, then he looked really embarrassed and before Merlin could say anything else he darted off down the hall and to his next class.

Then Merlin turned back to Gwen. "I'm not gay."

"Oh." she said it the same way Percival had.

"Why does everyone think I am?"

"Somebody saw you and Arthur Pendragon leaving the school together. Something about him walking you home?"

"Well that part is true. Greenburg punched me in the face and broke my glasses and Arthur offered to walk me home because, somehow, he knew I'm blind as a bat. Is he getting any of this?" Merlin asked gesturing to the crowed of giggling girls passing them.

"Well no, he's not." Gwen said starting to blush a little.

"Why not."

"He's gone here for a while, and you just got here..."

"So I'm _obviously_ the gay new kid." Merlin said sarcastically.

"Obviously." Gwen said trying not to laugh.

"Does anyone even notice the black eye and lack of glasses?"

"You may be new but everyone knows you're the clumsiest person ever and as for the glasses, no. But it looks good."

"So I'm the clumsy possibly gay new kid."

"But now you're the clumsy possibly gay new kid without glasses."

Merlin laughed but it turned into a harsh cough. When he was done trying to bring up a lung Merlin took a moment to check his breathing, something he always had to do when he thought he was starting to get sick because of his asthma. He thought his breathing felt a little more tight than normal. _But I'm sick that's what happens when you're a sick asthmatic. I have a game today anyway I won't be doing much, I never do._ As the day continued less and less people were pointing at Merlin. Merlin figured the rumor had gotten old or the news that Merlin wasn't gay was starting to make its way around. Merlin hoped it was the latter. But he also felt sicker and sicker as the day continued. What started out as a good day was not living up to his expectations. Then Arthur confronted him at lunch.

Merlin had just sat down with his food, after Gwen and Freya forced him to get something from the cafeteria (seriously who wants to eat when their sick?) when Arthur marched up to him looking livid.

"Holmes!"

"We're not on the field Arthur you can call me by my first name..."

"Holmes, listen to me."

"Merlin just say it, there aren't that many Merlins it's not like we'd get confused over who you're trying to talk to."

"Don't get smart with me." Arthur yelled. "You think I like being pranked. You must think you're a real laugh don't you."

"What? Arthur.. Ididn'ttellanyoneweweregaytogether." Merlin blurted out.

"What." Arthur asked taken aback.

"I didn't tell anyone we were gay."

"Oh, I knew you weren't gay."

"Seems like you're the only one. Anyway, continue raging on about whatever you were mad about before."

Arthur glared at Merlin and Merlin just smiled back knowing he had distracted Arthur from his anger and it was going to be nearly impossible for him to get it back now.

"You sent your brother after me. Or at least someone who says he's your brother, something I highly doubt since I met him and he looks nothing like the guy who kidnapped me."

"I have two brothers."

"Wha- Who- Uggh- That doesn't explain why one of your brothers kidnapped me!"

"Mycroft, he does that to all my friends. Don't feel too special. He did it to John when he first met Sherlock and to Freya and Gwen." Merlin said gesturing to his two friends on the other side of the lunch table.

"And your alright with that?" Arthur asked.

"Well no, it was really annoying but he's just protective."

"Why would he be protective of you?"

Merlin's face dropped and his breathing got a little faster as he thought about Moriarty. _Don't think about him. Don't say his name. _"He has his reasons. He works for the British government. If you had to deal with the people he's dealt with you'd be paranoid too."

"So? My dad works for the government too but he doesn't kidnap all my friends and interrogate them."

Merlin couldn't help but smile at this "Your father _works for_ the British government, my brother _is_ the British government." Then Merlin turned his attention back to his lunch. Arthur was about to go back to his own lunch table when Morgana walked by.

"How's it feel, Freya finding out your crush is gay?" Morgana said loud enough for Gwen, Freya, Merlin, and Arthur to hear. It was as if she had dropped a bomb on them, nobody spoke and nobody knew where to look either. Freya stared at her sandwich as if it was the only thing in the room she could look at without being frightened and everyone could see tears forming in her brown eyes.

"Hey don't talk to her like that!" Merlin yelled.

"Come back here and apologize!" Arthur yelled at the same time Merlin did. Morgana just laughed loudly and dumped her trash in the trash can and made her way out of the cafeteria. Both Arthur and Merlin made to run after her but then Gwaine stopped Merlin.

"Better let the siblings fight this one alone." he said and Merlin nodded. He was trying to get his breathing under back control anyway. Merlin went back to his lunch table only to find it empty.

"Gwen and Freya left, Freya was pretty upset." Elyan informed him, after coming to stand next to Gwaine. "You wanna sit with us?" He asked, gesturing to the lunch table of all football players.

Merlin looked around, nearly everyone in the cafeteria was staring at him. "No thanks Elyan. I'll see you later." Merlin says and then left the cafeteria pretending to be unnoticed. Merlin spends the rest of his lunch period staring at his history notes in an attempt to study. He was still trying to wrap his head around the days events. _Why didn't anyone question it when the rumor started that I was gay. Do I seem gay? Do I act gay? Do I smell gay? Wait do gay guys smell any different then straight ones? Why would Freya care if I was gay? Why did she react when Morgana said that? What did Morgana mean? Why is my asthma so bad today? It's never been this bad before, not without some sort of exercise first. It can't be this bad just because I'm sick, right? _Merlin was so lost in thought that he jumped when the bell rang for the end of lunch. Merlin packed away his, unstudied, history notes, grabbed his biology binder and book and went to biology class.

The room was empty when Merlin got there, not even the teacher was there. Knowing Ms. Hunith wasn't picky about students being in her room before she got there Merlin entered, turned on the light, and went to his desk. Merlin put his back-pack on the floor and was about to sit down in his desk when he noticed a white dust coating it. _Must be from the lab Mrs. Hunith said she was going to do with the other class. If they left it on the desk it's probably harmless. _Merlin, in one swipe took most of the powder off the desk and sent it into the air. Then the smell hit him. It wasn't a particularly bad smell, but it wasn't a good one either and it reminded Merlin of something.

_**"Ah, look Merlin, we have visitors"**_

_**"Just imagine what poor panicked Merlin must be going through, slowly choking as his esophagus closes in on itself and his lungs struggle for air."**_

_**"What a terrible way to die, your own body smothering itself."**_

_It smells like that stuff, whatever it was Moriarty made me breathe. So that I would..._

_**"He was a little reluctant to accept my hospitality but I insisted."**_

_Why can't I forget him for two seconds? Why can't he leave me alone? I'm better than this, why can't I forget this... _

_Why can't I breathe?_

Merlin couldn't breathe. Well he could but not well, he couldn't get enough air. It was just like when Moriarty kidnapped him. He closed his eyes and he could feel Moriarty's henchmen hand holding his nose closed and forcing his mouth open to breathe whatever it was that brought his attack on and Moriarty's men holding his arms, forcing him to stay in the chair. Merlin wheezed and struggled to orient himself enough to get to his back-pack to get his inhaler. This is how Ms. Hunith found him.

"Hello Mer... Merlin what's wrong." She dropped her file of papers somewhere behind her desk not caring where it landed and rushed to Merlin's side. Before he could answer Arthur, and Gwaine entered.

"Merlin... Oh crap your having an asthma attack!" Arthur said as he and Gwaine quickly dropped their back-packs and rushed to Merlin's side as well.

"The headmaster usually tells me when a student has a bad case of asthma."

"That's because it's not. I only know because I'm captain of the football team." Arthur explained quickly as he madly searched Merlin's back-pack for his inhaler. "You do carry an inhaler on you right?" Merlin nodded.

More people were entering the classroom. Will, George, and Percival, followed closely by Freya. Gwaine kept the other students away from Merlin and Arthur, Ms. Hunith got all the students except for Merlin and Arthur out of the room and had Mrs. Ygrain, the other science teacher watch them and then she called the office over the school inter-com to ask for some sort of medical help.

"Ok." Arthur said finally finding the inhaler, only then realizing he only vaguely knew how to work it and definitely didn't know how to administer it to someone. He didn't need to worry though because all he had to do was hold it up and Merlin took it from him.

He took a puff from it, waited but it did nothing, then again, then waited again and it did nothing, he did it one last time and got the same result. He could barely hold the inhaler his hands where shaking so badly but Arthur didn't want to take it from Merlin since Arthur had no idea how to work it. Then Mr. Gaius entered the room. Without needing to be told what the problem was he rushed to Merlin said.

"Didn't we ask for medical help?" Arthur said.

"The school nurse wasn't in her office, and I was once a nurse." Mr. Gaius explained as he began to asses the still loudly wheezing Merlin. "How many puffs had he taken?"

"Three." Arthur answered.

"Let's try it one more time." Gaius took the inhaler from Merlin's jittery hands, shook it, held it up to Merlin's mouth and then pressed down on the canister. "It should work immediately." But it didn't, Gaius waited a few moments before speaking up, "We need to take him to the hospital." He said urgently "Does anyone have a car."

"Shouldn't we call an ambulance?" Mrs. Hunith asked.

"No it'll take too long, we don't know if he has time to take two trips." Gaius explained as he packed up Merlin's things and slung the back-pack on his own back. Merlin, completely aware of the conversation and it's topic started wheezing louder obviously frightened at the idea of having to go to the hospital. He started frantically gesturing as he struggled to communicate something. "Merlin, it's alright, you're going to be alright." Gaius said soothingly as he helped Merlin stand from the chair.

"Hardly any of the students, or teachers for that matter have a car, we're in London." Mrs. Hunith answered, clearly distressed.

"I do, well I have a chauffeur at least." Arthur offered quickly.

"That'll have to do." Gaius said as he put one of Merlin's arms around his shoulder and started to move toward the door. "Are you coming?" He called back to Arthur. Arthur quickly jumped into action grabbed and Merlin's other arm and putting it over his own shoulder. "Your chauffeur is here right?"

"He's not supposed to leave after he drops Morgana and I off." Gaius rolled his eyes, why children would need an all day chauffeur when they spent he whole day in school was beyond him, but he decided to be thankful instead of sarcastic.

Arthur and Gaius climbed into the car, manhandling Merlin in also. Merlin was surprisingly coherent in Arthur's opinion but still quite weak and jittery. The chauffeur looked up confused when they entered the car and quickly dropped the book he was reading. Arthur caught a glance of a girl and guy on the cover and rolled his eyes, _How does he not know that Morgana and I have figured out he reads those stupid romance novels. _

"We need to get to the hospital!" Gaius told him, the chauffeur didn't need to be told twice and sped out of the school parking lot. Gaius rummaged through Merlin's book-bag and pulled out Merlin's phone. "Call the hospital, tell them we're coming within five minutes and with an asthmatic experiencing a bad asthma attack. We'll be taking him to St. Bart's." Arthur took the phone and dialed 999 while Gaius went back to giving Merlin his inhaler (although Arthur failed to see how that would help) and trying to calm Merlin down.

* * *

After a terrifyingly fast drive through London, courtesy of their chauffeur, Arther, Mr. Gaius, and Merlin got to St. Bart's. Merlin's breathing was not getting any better, his wheezing was worse than ever. He looked so tired, every breath taking more out of him then it had any right to. Arthur helped Merlin out of the car and Mr. Gaius grabbed Merlin's bag. Merlin looked so scared, he was starting to scare Arthur. Arthur half carried-half pulled Merlin into the hospital. The moment they entered Mr. Gaius started shouting out medical terms that made no sense to Arthur and a bunch of nurses rushed forward with a cot they had prepared. In a rush of blue and green scrubs and grabby hands they took Merlin from Arthur and left him standing, feeling useless in the emergency room waiting room. He saw Mr. Gaius sitting in on of the chairs and joined him.

"I would send you back to school," Mr. Gaius began, "But I don't think you'd learn anything."

With Arthur's mind being as addled as it was, it took him a moment to grasp that Mr. Gaius was letting him off. "Thanks. What do we do now?"

"Now we wait." Mr. Gaius said.


End file.
